Brush with death on the 14th. Never have taken bug bites that seriously and at this point don't know what happened. Fevers started on the 12th, 101.8, progressed, got higher by the 14th, 103.3, terrible shakes, headaches, nausea, chills, dehydration. Went to emergency room, got admitted. Fever and shakes got worse. Blood pressure dropped to 76. Three tries just to sit up. They put in 3- I.V. antibiotics and blood pressure meds. Still nothing definitive yet on tests. Got treated for tic diseases, which stopped the fevers. They always said, of tic bites and diseases, "flu like symptoms," which I took to mean, not a problem if you just come in. All I can say is if you experience this stuff, don't wait to go in and be ready for a really rough time. From the moment the chills began I had a feeling it wasn't going to be good but had no idea what I was in for or how it could deteriorate so quickly. Sepsis is bad ... Take it seriously if you have these symptoms.

Wow, and you were worried about my bleeding? Sounds like you were in a lot worse shape than me! Thanks for the warning from all of us! We have plenty of ticks in Wisconsin, just not so many where we live. Guess I'll keep letting the opossums go. Hope you get back to normal and stay that way.

Jim im happy to hear your doing better! your symptoms sounded identical to mine. Felt like a hang over from hades but I was suffering from severe joint pains as well! Doxycyclenie is your friend now. did they ever figure out what strain of the disease you had? mine was ehrliciosis! Which thankfully is one of the mild ones! Mine was worse than it should have been. They had to stop all my anti rejection meds before I could have any high powered antibiotics. I was only two years out from heart transplant! Happy to hear your on the mend

Glad your better Jim

9 years of Lyme here Only time I got like you describe is when I had a Herxey Effect for the test that confirmed I had Lyme

Doxy doxy doxy. And now I have found Banderol, great results from it with less issues for the gut

YES EVERYONE TAKE TICK BITES SERIOUSLY

"Some learn from the mistakes of others, some from their own mistakes, and some never learn!"

Glad to hear y'all are doing well. "Take tick bites seriously" is definitely a word to the wise.

Glad to hear you are doing better.

I guess I just didn't know how fast this could go from 0 to 60, scary. Just getting educated. I had never spent a night in a hospital in 68 years, take no meds and rarely see a doctor, so I really wasn't ready for the hospital. The P.A. suggested checking in. So glad I did. Once the blood pressure drops organs begin to shut down so they have to be right on it as organ failures or death are possible. I remember delirium, not knowing what was happening in the E.R. They were poking me and hollering at times to see if I was still awake or maybe still alive, definitely not alert. I did answer back that I was still there as I did hear them and said, "didn't know you were talking to me." LOL. They fill you full of fluids, enough so I went from 225 to 250 in two days or less. Felt like I was gonna pop. I.V. lines don't last long with heavy duty drugs so they have to keep sticking and pulling. Felt like a pin cushion.

Had not heard of Ehrliciosis, so many now. I will be retested for Lyme and Anaplasmosis. There seems to be a wide range of responses to all the diseases and all kinds of symptoms. I guess I maxed out. Not a kid any more. Can't imagine 9 years of Lyme. So thankful for all the antibiotics that are the difference between being here and not.

WELL jim lets both pray its the minor one ehrliciosis my doc told me that's the little one and the best if there is one to get. Lymes has some delayed side affects and pricey to detect! I over heard my doctors arguing about anaplasmosis they both assured me that wasn't it. hind sight I believe the fever caused all the delirium! They gave me two back to back 1000mg benedrils !Which broke my 103.2 fever then I slept for 48 hrs! I woke up ready to eat a bed pan! Did they put you in the CDC area?

Glad to have you back and doing well Sir!

Jim, Hope your feeling better. You have to take care around those Warren County ticks, a lot more potent than the ticks in Saratoga county.

And if the disease doesn't get you, the cure will. Too much of the blood pressure meds at once shot my blood pressure up to 226 quickly, up from 76 and pulse to 144. Felt like I wasn't breathing though I was panting like a dog and felt like I was running a marathon. They probably wondered why it didn't kill me. Guess I got the unordered stress test combo. Pulling all those beaver dams may have helped with conditioning a bit anyway. The betadine left some pretty substantial burns that are going to take several more weeks to heal, awful. Bottom line, don't get sick. My doc said anaplasmosis is not uncommon now in this area. Would be nice to nail it down to something specific for closure.

Wow! Glad you are better Jim...like you said we take too much for granted....darn little bugs.

Get well soon. I hope you are also taking a real good probiotic.

Thank you for the update and the warning. I am glad that you are doing better. Good health is a blessing and a very fragile state.

Ticks live on the ground. There are many ticks in my area. I work in the outdoors everyday. Every spring I put a flea and tick collar loosely around the ankle of my hunting and work boots. Use electrical tape to cover the buckle and seal the ends so it doesn’t snag on anything. That allows the boots to go on and off easily. There is no direct skin contact with the insecticide, so no risk. No ticks on me since I started doing this about 15 years ago. I remove the collars around Thanksgiving.

Best wishes.

Heard you were under the weather. Wow! Didn't know how sick you were though! Glad you're feeling better!

Willy, I always thought that would make a great cartoon...picture of a guy strapping on his flea and tick collar to go into the skinning shed. Maybe have his dog in the back ground looking up with a question mark above his head....lol

Yes, taking a probiotic which seems to be working well. Neat to hear about using the tick collar on boots. Most of my time is in the swamp with hip boots, so not sure what could done in that case to help mitigate the tick issue? On the plus side, usually after a flu or a sinus infection it can be a slow go to get strength back and feel semi normal. I set 4 beaver jobs yesterday and felt pretty much no difference than before getting into this mess. The low point was really low, but seems like I bounced right back pretty fast, odd. Guess the drugs really whacked it. Did take a week and do little after getting out of the hospital, not much sleep when passing 25+ pounds of fluid at night. Didn't sleep for more than a week. For me and those who know me, the whole notion of what happened, dropping off so quickly to an apparent point of no return without intervention from the E.R. and I.C.U. to reverse this thing was the most disconcerting. So thankful for the drug companies that developed all this stuff.

At least I shed a few pounds. Didn't feel like eating in the beginning and in the I.C.U. they give you nothing at first, only a sponge to get a few water droplets, so as not to complicate if they need to do something. Don't want aspiration to be an issue.

Happened so fast you only hope someone got a plate number of the truck that backed over me. Will be tested again shortly to see if anything definitive shows in antibodies. Most are very interested in exactly what the cause was, as am I. Told the doc, "don't worry too much as he scored the win."

Wow Jim, that's a scary story. I'm glad the docs were able to fix you up. After 2 cases of Lyme's disease over the years I have a real dislike and concern for ticks. My solution is good old fashion DEET and plenty of it during the season. Keeps the skeeters off me too.

You can add a whole chapter about this in that book your writing.

in the spring I use permithrine like deodorant! I love the flea &tic collar idea! I asked my doc if advantix was harmful to people! His reply was stay out of the woods and away from tics! My reply oh crap im dead! We had a good heart to heart. He said I will keep a standing order for dox. Any time I get a tic bite and start feeling weird. Call id have the pills in 2hrs or less! LOL after that your a bit paranoid. My docs know im all about quality of life not quanity!

Glad to hear you're on the mend. That is scary stuff.